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Abstract: This study argues that the ethnic Laz in Turkey resort to irony, humor and mockery to cope with and negotiate the stereotypes, ethnic humor and mockery they encounter in their interactions with outsiders. The trope of irony, humor and mockery have enabled the Laz to navigate the national and regional hierarchies and reproduce their symbolic boundaries regardless of the common and ardent appropriation of Turkishness. In so doing, the Laz can more subtly challenge the official ideology of uniformity. While the public use of Lazuri is still considered a threat to the negotiated boundaries of Lazness, new instruments present creative displays of their ethnic capital which do not contradict present day principles of Turkish nationalism, and offer a legitimate sharing of intimacy without embar-rassment. The Laz, like other non-Turkish Muslim peoples of the Black Sea region, abandoned their politically threatening ethnic distinctions, appropriated the capital of Turkishness through their performances, and coped with mockery and stigma by ironizing differences and negotiating, trivializing or selectively appropriating the stereotypes imposed upon them. Ironically, they have “out-performed” ethnic Turks in certain ways, in their search for acceptance as Turks, achieving upward mobility and avoiding forms of stigmatization.
Keywords: Turkey, Laz, ethnicity, ethnic identity, irony, humor, mockery
Published in DiRROS: 22.03.2022; Views: 541; Downloads: 274
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Abstract: Focusing on 21st century developments in southeast Anatolia, this article exa-mines the circumstances of minority communities within the contexts of the shifting dynamics of Turkey’s national project. Until the early 20th century southe-ast Anatolia was an ethnic patchwork. The early republican era saw efforts to “Turkify” through the promulgation of a national identity project asserting eth-nic unity. From the 1980s, conflict with the PKK gave urgency to the notion that uniformity was paramount for national cohesion. In this milieu, ethnic diversity was suspect. Circumstances changed with the AKP government’s 2002 ascendance and the earlier emergence of Kurdish municipal politicians. This article documents how thereafter the re-imagining of the national project away from an exclusive eth-nic categorisation allowed acknowledgement and accommodation of ethnic and religious diversity across southeast Anatolia. The chapter analyses these events in light of a backlash by nationalist politicians, the 2015 re-ignition of the PKK con-flict and the subsequent resurgence of nationalist rhetoric in the political arena. It appears a narrow, exclusive national identity is re-asserting itself. The article thus examines the extent to which the experience of south-eastern Anatolia represents the re-imagining of Turkey’s national project and the embrace of a previously de-nied multi-ethnic socio-political fabric.
Keywords: Turkey, southeast Anatolia, ethnic identity, minorities, national identity, Justice and Development Party, nationalism
Published in DiRROS: 22.03.2022; Views: 488; Downloads: 311
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Abstract: The relationship between state and non-Muslim communities has been a de-licate issue since the founding of the Turkish Republic despite the principle of secularism stated in its constitution. Against this background, the association of national identity with Sunni-Islam has been the main marker of inclusion/exclusi-on for national identity. Especially since 2002 when the Justice and Development Party (JDP) came to power, the debate with regard to freedom of religion and the rights of religious minorities came to the fore. Over the course of decades there have been numerous studies approaching the state’s perspective towards religious minorities. However, there is a paucity of academic studies that focuses on citizen-ship experiences of the members of these communities through the course of their daily and social lives. In this article, we first provide a historical perspective of the state towards religious minorities from the establishment of the Republic until to-day, including the JDP period. In the second part of this study we aim to explore recasting perspectives of the non-Muslim minorities over the previous decade by taking the standpoint of the members of Greek Orthodox, Jews and Armenian communities. To this end, we conduct in-depth interviews with the members of these communities who reside in Istanbul. Finally, new negotiation fields which have been flourishing among these communities will be addressed.
Keywords: national identity, non-Muslim minorities, ethno-religious identity, religion-state relations, freedom of religion, civil society
Published in DiRROS: 22.03.2022; Views: 555; Downloads: 414
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Abstract: This article aims to explore the affinities between contemporary Paganism and the posthuman project in how they approach the non-human natural world. On the one hand, posthumanism explores new ways of considering the notion of hu-mans and how they are linked with the non-human world. On the other hand, Neopaganism expands this reflection to the spiritual domain through its animistic relational sensibility. Both perspectives challenge the modern paradigm where na-ture and humans are opposed and mutually disconnected. They instead propose a relational ontology that welcomes the “different other.” This integrated relation-ship between humans and the “other than human” can be understood through the semiotic Chora, a notion belonging to Julia Kristeva that addresses how the subject is not symbolically separated from the world in which it is contained.
Keywords: posthumanism, Neopaganism, animism, earth - based religion
Published in DiRROS: 22.03.2022; Views: 559; Downloads: 285
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Abstract: A major concern of public health authorities is to also encourage adults to be exposed to enriched environments (sensory and cognitive-motor activity) during the pandemic lockdown, as was recently the case worldwide during the COVID-19 outbreak. Games for adults that require physical activity, known as exergames, offer opportunities here. In particular, the output of the gaming industry nowadays offers computer games with extended reality (XR) which combines real and virtual environments and refers to human-machine interactions generated by computers and wearable technologies. For example, playing the game in front of a computer screen while standing or walking on a force plate or treadmill allows the user to react to certain infrastructural changes and obstacles within the virtual environment. Recent developments, optimization, and minimizations in wearable technology have produced wireless headsets and sensors that allow for unrestricted whole-body movement. This makes the virtual experience more immersive and provides the opportunity for greater engagement than traditional exercise. Currently, XR serves as an umbrella term for current immersive technologies as well as future realities that enhance the experience with features that produce new controllable environments. Overall, these technology-enhanced exergames challenge the adult user and modify the experience by increasing sensory stimulation and creating an environment where virtual and real elements interact. As a therapy, exergames can potentially create new environments and visualizations that may be more ecologically valid and thus simulate real activities of daily living that can be trained. Furthermore, by adding telemedicine features to the exergame, progress over time can be closely monitored and feedback provided, offering future opportunities for cognitive-motor assessment. To more optimally serve and challenge adults both physically and cognitively over time in future lockdowns, there is a need to provide long-term remote training and feedback. Particularly related to activities of daily living that create opportunities for effective and lasting rehabilitation for elderly and sufferers from chronic non-communicable diseases (CNDs). The aim of the current review is to envision the remote training and monitoring of physical and cognitive aspects for adults with limited mobility (due to disability, disease, or age), through the implementation of concurrent telehealth and exergame features using XR and wireless sensor technologies.
Keywords: older adults, telemedicine, virtual reality, rehabilitation, active video games
Published in DiRROS: 17.03.2022; Views: 599; Downloads: 473
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